House Hunting By Helicopter Takes Off – Charles D’Alberto

Some luxury real estate agents take top clients up by helicopter to tour ranch lands, gated manses and other scenic listings

Airsickness bags, aviation headsets and Dramamine are the new essentials for a select group of real-estate agents, who take top clients up in helicopters to show multimillion-dollar listings.

“We don’t do it for just anyone—they have to be very well-qualified,” said Gwen Banta, a Los Angeles-based luxury broker who has flown clients over $11 million and $16 million homes in Lake Arrowhead and Mammoth Lakes, Calif. “You come in over the lake and get that view and they’re sold on the area before they ever touch ground.”

In cities like Miami, Los Angeles and Chicago, flying real-estate agents score points with high-value clients by gliding over snarled traffic, swooping low over gated manses, and scoping out neighborhoods (and potential next-door neighbors) in a matter of minutes. Ranch brokers in the Rocky Mountains and Texas can cover thousands of acres in an afternoon, while delivering views of rivers, canyons, and the occasional grizzly bear.

When we look at property anywhere, in central Florida or Idaho or Wyoming, we always use the helicopter because it gives you such a bird’s-eye view,” said Bernie Little, a commercial cattle owner who has a home in Ocala, Fla. and a ranch in Jackson, Wyo.

That view comes at a cost: Prices start at $650 to $800 an hour for a three-passenger Robinson R-44 Raven II helicopter and pilot. Sightseeing and catered lunches are often included. The broker usually foots the bill, including the cost of the helicopter and pilot.

“To provide something that a really wealthy person would appreciate is not an easy thing to do,” said Chris Feurer, CEO of Jameson Sotheby’s International Realty in Chicago, which began offering helicopter viewings of properties with a minimum $1.5 million purchase price last fall.

Mr. Feurer said that he has budgeted $100,000 for the helicopter service this year. Jameson brokers have used it to show luxury condominiums and equestrian estates—and as a perk for top clients. Attorney Janice Anderson sold her $1.6 million condo in the city’s South Loop and bought a new one on Lake Michigan for just under $900,000 with broker Lauren Schuh. As a thank you, Ms. Schuh took Ms. Anderson and her daughter for a victory lap over the city.

Pilots and real-estate agents strategize in advance to plan aerial house tours. The pilot collects the coordinates of the different homes and neighborhoods the agent wants to show, and uses them to program the day’s flight plan. The agent uses Google-based mapping software on an iPad to identify what those properties will look like from 500 feet in the air. If a home that isn’t listed catches the client’s eye, the agent can pinpoint the location for future reference, while the pilot zooms in for a close-up.

“We can go really, really close—you can literally see people laying out on their decks,” said Lindsay Galbraith, a Sotheby’s International Realty agent based in West Hollywood.

Not all owners—or their neighbors—are ready for their close-up. “The sellers do not enjoy it when they’re home and there’s a helicopter flying low at close range,” said Ms. Galbraith.

Los Angeles’s luxury market is particularly suited for airborne house-hunting, with its jammed freeways, and the miles of hedgerows and high gates that shield high-end properties from view. From the sky, it’s easy to see which Malibu listings have a coveted dry beach, or one that disappears at high tide. A-list clients can check whether a gated estate is truly paparazzi-proof.

“No. 1 rule: What a helicopter can see from up here is what someone can see from a house on the hilltop with a big-angle lens,” said Ben Salem, an L.A. broker.

Eager to snag lucrative commissions instead of hourly fees, some commercial pilots have gotten their own real-estate licenses. Marc Hennes, a helicopter pilot and real-estate agent based in Fort Lauderdale, starts by asking clients if they’d like to view luxury properties with the chopper doors on or off.

“We would come to almost a complete stop in midair—say you’re on the edge of a cliff, looking down,” said Phil Appleton, a consultant in the offshore oil and gas industry, who bought a $1.1 million beachfront condo in Fort Lauderdale after hovering in front of it—doors off—with Mr. Hennes.

Mr. Hennes, who sometimes brings a second pilot along, “because I can’t talk and point out properties while driving,” recently toured the site of a new luxury condominium with clients. “They couldn’t imagine what the views were like, so we flew right around the 12th story,” he said.

Elena Berman, an artist and wellness consultant, decided to list her $3.2 million lakeside home in California’s San Fernando Valley with John Mowatt, a pilot, flight instructor and real-estate agent, after he took her for a demo viewing in a Sikorsky S-76. Ms. Berman enjoyed the flight, if not the descent: “I had five minutes of nauseous time—you cannot look down so much.”

Mr. Mowatt, who co-founded Heli-Realtors in L.A., stocks the five helicopters he uses with airsickness wristbands and barf bags. Savvy brokers suggest Dramamine before boarding.

Viewings are occasionally delayed by bad weather or mechanical problems. One pilot had to make an emergency landing, turning a 45-minute viewing into a four-hour pit-stop. “The clients were a little frustrated,” said Heli-Realtors co-founder and broker Brett Lieberman.

More often, agents and pilots say, the helicopter is a great bonding tool. “A lot of these folks are pretty standoffish when they first meet us. As soon as you get them in the air and they see the beauty…they really lighten up,” said Mark Taylor, chief pilot and owner of Montana-based Rocky Mountain Rotors, who tours $40 million ranches with brokers such as Tim Murphy of Hall and Hall.

Mr. Murphy’s prospective buyers pay the aircraft fees themselves, which start at $1,400 an hour for a turbine helicopter. A client with an entourage—or a life insurance policy that prohibits single-engine helicopter flights—may require the twin-engine Bell 429 with seven passenger seats, for $4,650 an hour. An average tour can last five hours; two-day trips to view multiple ranches, with an overnight stay at a picturesque cabin, are not uncommon.

Mr. Taylor, who relies on remote webcams throughout Yellowstone to monitor flight conditions for his high-altitude tours, ups the wow factor by seeking out alpine waterfalls, lofty peaks and photogenic wildlife. While flying with Mr. Murphy and clients from London, Mr. Taylor spotted a grizzly bear and her cubs in a distant meadow. He flew over and did a low figure-eight around the bears, who rose up on cue.

“We always find cool stuff that just blows the mind of these people who come from the city,” Mr. Murphy said.

Kevin Meier, an agent with duPerier Land Man, flies his clients over hunting and fishing ranches across Texas, sometimes covering 500 miles in one day. A former wildlife biologist, Mr. Meier uses his helicopter tours to spotlight a recreational ranch’s key selling points: rivers and creeks—essential for fly-fishing—or a well-antlered deer herd. Lunch is provided, on the fly. “The client said, ‘Hey, let’s go and grab some lunch—I see some Dairy Queen’,” Mr. Meier recalled.